Stuffing-box device for crimping filamentary material

ABSTRACT

A pair of nip rollers cooperate with one another for feeding filamentary material in a predetermined direction. They define with one another immediately downstream of the nip a free space having two opposite open sides. Wall means is arranged adjacent to and closing the opposite open sides but is out of contact with the nip rollers, defining with the same a crimping chamber. A skewed crimping member is mounted on the wall means extending across the chamber in the path of the filamentary material. A doctor blade is arranged downstream of the crimping member mounted for movement between an active and an inactive position in which it respectively contacts and is withdrawn from contact with the circumference of the nip rollers.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Miloslav Pavek;

Miroslav Novacek, Liberec, Czechoslovakia [2]] Appl. No. 860,166 [22] Filed Sept. 18, 1969 [45] Patented Mar. 23, 1971 [73] Assigrree Elitex, ZAVODY Textilniho Strojirenstvi Generalni Reditelstvi Liberec, Czechoslovakia [32] Priority Sept. 21, 1968 [33] Czechoslovakia [31] PV 6621-68 [54] STUFFING-BOX DEVICE FOR CRIMPING FILAMENTARY MATERIAL 10 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,137,055 6/1964 Rainardetal. 28/l.6

3,177,556 4/1965 Van Blerk 28/72. 14 3,383,744 5/1968 Moylan 28/].6 FOREIGN PATENTS 190,518 3/1967 U.S.S.R. 28/72.]4

Primary ExaminerLouis K. Rimbodt Att0rney--Michael S. Striker ABSTRACT: A pair of nip rollers cooperate with one another for feeding filamentary material in a predetermined direction. They define with one another immediately downstream of the nip a free space having two opposite open sides. Wall means is arranged adjacent to and closing the opposite open sides but is out of contact with the nip rollers, defining with the same a crimping chamber. A skewed crimping member is mounted on the wall means extending across the chamber in the path of the filamentary material. A doctor blade is arranged downstream of the crimping member mounted for movement between an active and an inactive position in which it respectively contacts and is withdrawn from contact with the circumference of the nip rollers.

S'llJlFFlNG-EQX DEVKCE ll flifi CETMIPHNG FllEAMENTAlhY ll/lATEllllAL BACKGROUND OF THE llNVENTlON The present invention relates to the crimping of filamentary material in general, and more particularly to a stuffing box device for effecting such crimping.

Stuffing boxes for crimping of filamentary material, such as yarn, "fibers, filaments, and the like, are of course not new. in fact, a variety of different devices is known for this purpose from the prior art. Conventionally the crimping is performed by forcing the filamentary material to enter into the stuffing box, whereupon it assumes crimped configuration, and thereupon setting the cn'mped configuration in the filamentary material. it has been found, however, that crimping performed in this manner has certain disadvantages. Particularly, during the initial filling-up of the crimping chamber the incoming yarn is unevenly crimped and as a rule must be discarded. Furthermore, it frequently occurs that fibers in particular become entangled and/r caught between stationary and movable parts of the device.

All of this is of course unsatisfactory, not only from a point of view of wasted material, but also because of machine down time which may result from entanglement of the material between the stationary and movable parts of the device, and for a variety of other reasons which are well enough known to those skilled in the art not to require detailed discussion herein.

SUMMARY OF THE lNVENTiON it is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages.

More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a stuffing-box device which is not possessed of these disadvantages.

An additional object of the invention is to provide such a stufiing-box device which is simple in its construction and therefore relatively inexpensive to manufacture.

A concomitant object of the invention is to provide such a stuffing-box device which can be readily examined, cleaned and otherwise serviced if and when necessary.

in pursuance of the above objects, and others which will become apparent hereafter, one feature of the invention resides, briefly stated, in a stuffing-box device for crimping filamentary material which comprises a pair of nip rollers cooperating for feeding filamentary material in a predetermined direction. These nip rollers define with one another immediately downstream of their nip a free space having two opposite open sides. Wall means is arranged adjacent to but out of contact with the nip rollers closing the opposite open sides of the space and defining with the nip rollers a crimping chamber. A skewed crimping member is mounted on the wall meal s extending across the chamber in the path of the filamentary material. A doctor blade is arranged downstream of the crimping member and mounted for movement between an active and an inactive position in which it respectively contacts and is withdrawn from contact with the circumferences of the nip rollers.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth inparticular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRlPTlON OF THE DRAWING FlG. l is a diagrammatic illustration, with parts omitted for the sake of clarity, of a device according to the present invention;

FM. 2 is a view analogous to FIG. l, but showing the fiberwithdrawing channel in section, and with certain parts shown in phantom lines; and

FIGS. Eta-31" are cross sections illustrating suitable crosssectional configurations of the skewed member utilized in the embodiment of H68. l and 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Discussing now the drawing in detail, and firstly FIGS. 11 and 2 thereof, it will be seen that the device-which of course will be employed in conjunction with a suitable textile processing machine which is not illustrated herein-comprises two feeding rollers l, l which rotate in mutually opposite directions about axes which extend in parallelism with one another. A supporting body 2, 2' is provided, shown only in part for the sake of clarity of illustration, but mounting the rollers l, l for rotation and closing the opposite open sides of a space which is located immediately downstream of the nip of the rollers t, l. The term nip roller indicates that the rollers nip or engage between their respective circumferences the filament 3 for feeding it in predetermined direction, that is downwardly in the illustration of FlGS. l and 2. The direction of advancement of the filament is indicated by the arrow S1. Reference numeral b identifies a substantially funnel-shaped guide member serving to guide the filament 3 to the nip of the rollers l, i.

As mentioned before, the space downstream of the nip of the rollers l, l is closed at its opposite open sides by the presence of the walls of the mounting body 2. There is thus defined a stuffing box or stuffing chamber 4 the bottom opening of which is closable by a doctor blade 7 which is mounted movable in the direction of the fiber advancement, that is in the direction Sl, as indicated by the arrow associated with the blade 7.

Located in the interior of the chamber t, mounted firmly but removably on the wall means of the mounting body 2, is an elongated beam-shaped crimping member 5 which is arranged symmetrically intermediate the rollers l, l in their immediate proximity. In accordance with the present invention the crimping member 5 does not touch the rollers l, l and is skewed to the direction 81 and transversely of the chamber 4, that is from one to the other of the walls bounding the opposite open sides of the chamber 1, so that its longitudinal axis defines with the direction Sll an angle which according to the invention ranges between substantially l0-80. it is advantageous if the mounting of the member 5 is such that the angle may be adjusted at the will of an operator. Means for making this possible are of course well known to those skilled in the art.

A fiber withdrawing channel 6 is illustrated in FIG. 2 and it will be seen that its longitudinal axis is approximately coincident with the longitudinal axis of the member 5. The open end of the channel a communicates with the interior of the chamber 4.

When fiber 3 is fed through the guide member 3 into the nip between the rollers l, l in the direction of the arrow Sl, it enters the stuffing chamber 4 wherein it impinges upon the member 5. On contact therewith the first crimping phase takes place. Because of Because inclination of the member 5, and because of the cross-sectional configuration of the same which will be discussed subsequently with'reference to H0. 3, the crimped fiber 3 enters into the withdrawing channel ti, which may in part be equipped with heating means, electrical or otherwise, to set the crimp in the fiber 3 as the same is withdrawn through the channel 65.

Wl'ien feeding of the fiber 3 initially commences into the chamber 4, or when the apparatus repeatedly stops and starts, the chamber 4 is usually not quite filled with crimped fiber. in this case the fiber is prevented from exiting by the doctor blade 7. When the chamber 4 has been stuffed with the fiber 3, the doctor blade is withdrawn so that it will be in its inoperative position. The stuffed fibers or crimped fibers 3 fill up the interior'of the chamber in such a compact manner that no escape takes place between the member 5 and the feeding rollers i, l.

FIGS. Baa-3f show various different cross-sectional configurations suitable for the member 5. In FIGS. 3a the cross section is circular, in FIG. 3d it is semicircular, in FIG. 3e it is semicircular with a longitudinal groove provided in the flat face, in FIG. 312 it is triangular and in FIGS. 30 and 3f it is generally polygonal.

By comparison with known crimping devices utilizing the stuffing-box principle, the device according to the present invention provides the advantage that by changing the cross section or the inclination of the member 5that is by replacing the member 5 having one cross section with another member 5 having a different cross section, or by changing the inclination at which the member 5 is mounted-the degree to which the fiber 3 is crimped may be changed within a wide range of possibilities. By stuffing the fibers 3 so that they form a plug and transferring them in this shape from the chamber 4 into the withdrawing channel 6, the requirements with reference to tightness of the separate parts of the device are accordingly no longer so important in view of the strength of the fiber plug.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a stuffing-box device for crimping of filamentary material, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

We claim:

I. A stuffing-box device for crimping filamentary material, comprising in combination, a pair of nip rollers cooperating for feeding filamentary material in a predetermined direction, said nip rollers defining with one another immediately downstream of their nip a free space having two opposite open sides; wall means adjacent to and closing said opposite open sides but being out of contact with said nip rollers, said wall means defining with said rollers a crimping chamber; a skewed crimping member mounted on said wall means extending across said chamber in the path of said filamentary material; and a doctor blade arranged downstream of said crimping member and mounted for movement between an active and an inactive position in which it respectively contacts and is withdrawn from contact with the circumferences of said nip rollers.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, said crimping member being mounted replaceably.

3. A device as defined in claim 1, and further comprising outlet means communicating with said chamber for receiving crimped filamentary material therefrom.

4. A device as defined in claim 1, said crimping member being skewed at a predetermined angle with reference to said predetermined direction.

5. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said angle is between substantially 10 and substantially 6. A device as defined in claim 4, said crimping member being adjustably mounted for varying said angle at the will of the operator.

7. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said rollers have respective axes of rotation extending in parallelism with one another, and wherein said crimping member is elongated and extends in parallelism with said axes.

8. A device as defined in claim 7, wherein said crimping member is beamsshaped and has a cross section which is symmetrical with reference to said predetermined direction.

9. A device as defined in claim 8, wherein said cross section is circular.

10. A device as defined in claim 8, wherein said cross section is polygonal. 

1. A stuffing-box device for crimping filamentary material, comprising in combination, a pair of nip rollers cooperating for feeding filamentary material in a predetermined direction, said nip rollers defining with one another immediately downstream of their nip a free space having two opposite open sides; wall means adjacent to and closing said opposite open sides but being out of contact with said nip rollers, said wall means defining with said rollers a crimping chamber; a skewed crimping member mounted on said wall means extending across said chamber in the path of said filamentary material; and a doctor blade arranged downstream of said crimping member and mounted for movement between an active and an inactive position in which it respectively contacts and is withdrawn from contact with the circumferences of said nip rollers.
 2. A device as defined in claim 1, said crimping member being mounted replaceably.
 3. A device as defined in claim 1, and further comprising outlet means communicating with said chamber for receiving crimped filamentary material therefrom.
 4. A device as defineD in claim 1, said crimping member being skewed at a predetermined angle with reference to said predetermined direction.
 5. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said angle is between substantially 10* and substantially 80*.
 6. A device as defined in claim 4, said crimping member being adjustably mounted for varying said angle at the will of the operator.
 7. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said rollers have respective axes of rotation extending in parallelism with one another, and wherein said crimping member is elongated and extends in parallelism with said axes.
 8. A device as defined in claim 7, wherein said crimping member is beam-shaped and has a cross section which is symmetrical with reference to said predetermined direction.
 9. A device as defined in claim 8, wherein said cross section is circular.
 10. A device as defined in claim 8, wherein said cross section is polygonal. 